According to Tulchin Research, in a recent survey, 90 per cent of people surveyed favoured desalination, and 78 per cent indicated their preference for candidates for elected office who stand behind seawater desalination.
The robust partiality for a candidate who backs water desalination facilities and its associated funding is not limited by partisan and regional lines.
“Very few issues show such overwhelming support as does desalination in California,” President of Tulchin Research, Ben Tulchin, said. “Elected officials and candidates for elected office should certainly take note that their constituents clearly want seawater desalination as a source of drinking water in the state.”
Commissioned by the William C Velasquez Institute in Los Angeles, a non-partisan, non-profit organisation that conducts research with the goal of improving the level of political and economic participation of Latino and other underrepresented communities in America, the research study discovered that the backing for water desalination in California was evident in every demographic group. In particular, the study established that:
- 94 per cent of men and 87 per cent of women favoured seawater desalination
- 90 per cent of Democrats, 92 per cent of Republicans, and 89 per cent of independents all supported seawater desalination
- 93 per cent of the population in Sacramento/Northern California; 93 per cent of the population in Central Valley; 91 per cent of the population in the Bay Area; 90 per cent of the population in the Los Angeles area; 89 per cent of the population in Los Angeles County; and 85 per cent of the population in San Diego all backed seawater desalination
- Seawater desalination also found strong support in every ethnic group in California; 91 per cent of Caucasians, 91 per cent of Asians,90 per cent of Latinos, and 81 per cent of African Americans
- 92 per cent of people surveyed under the age of 50, and 89 per cent of people over the age of 50
- 87 per cent of those surveyed also expressed overwhelming support for paying a few dollars more per month for desalinated water in the short term. When both sides of the debate were presented, 78 per cent of those surveyed still backed seawater desalination
President of the William C Velasquez Institute, Antonia Gonzalez, said, “The results of this survey add to the mounting evidence that the majority of the state is in favour of desalination as a way to provide a secure source of drinking water for our communities.”
Sources: Association of California Water Agencies, Tulchin Research, William C Velasquez Institute, WaterWorld
